If You Think Flapping Underpants are Scary Wait 'til You See the Chickens!
Sharon October 13th, 2009
I love the New York Times’ attempt to make it seem like the debate over line drying of clothes has two equally credible sides. Thus we hear that (gasp!) once some realtor tried to sell a house to someone who didn’t like laundry hanging next door, and (gasp!) now that house is in foreclosure. So it must be a real issue. Never mind that there are nearly a million houses in the US in some stage of foreclosure now, and one in one million is a statistical irrelevance. Maybe they all have undies hanging on the line! Perhaps the entire housing crisis could be stopped this way! Why hasn’t anyone thought of this! Someone call Tim Geithner!
Driven by “nostalgia” the Very Important Paper reports that the right to dry movement has brought together a coalition of the old and the young, the poor and the environmentally conscious. Ummm…duh. And obviously, “the same nostalgia that has restored the popularity of canning and private vegetable gardens” is definitely the most important motivating factor. Sure.
There is no such thing as ecological use of a dryer. The air dries clothes – it dried all the clothes of all human beings for thousands of years. Yes, it takes longer when it is cold or humid. Yes, sometimes you have to do it inside. Yes, it takes a little longer. So?
My favorite quote from this piece is this one: “Richard Jacques, 63, president of the condominium’s board, said he moved to the community specifically for its strict regulations. “Those rules are why when I look out my window I now see birds, trees and flowers, not laundry,” he said.”
Awesome, Richard – you can see a whole host of species, slowly being destroyed by global warming, all so that you never have to see anyone’s sheets hanging up. Enjoy the spectacle! Ah the beauty of a dying ecology!
And know this – when I and all those old folks and young folks, those poor folks and environmental folks and those who just think it is silly to buy a $300 appliance to do something that the breeze or their heating source does for them get through with you, the laundry will be the least of your worries. I’ve got goats, and a plan for inflicting them on you and all the other reactionary zoning fascists ;-)!
Sharon
- America
- Comments(56)
and those would be your specially trained attack-goats?
Yes, I saw that article Sunday, including the guy lamenting the fact that a clothesline torpedoed the attempted sale of his expensive listing — uh, huh.
We have a clothesline ban around here too, but just the same, we’ve been setting up our two drying racks outside all summer in full view of everybody and nobody has said a word. Maybe it’s because our racks aren’t permanently installed or because quietly, people are seeing the increasingly whacked-out social, economic, and ecological trends that have written themselves across the surface of the earth since our neighborhood was formed 11 years ago, I can’t tell.
At some point, I’m going to push the issue further with a few hens, but I don’t think the time is quite hard up enough for that …… yet.
Wow, that article just infuriates me, on every level.
Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it Sharon . . . first it’s clotheslines, next thing you know, it’s goats!
And here I am feeling incredibly guilty when I do break down and finish my laundry in the dryer after waiting a couple of days for it to dry on the clothesline in our rainy coastal climate. This can mean taking it in when the rain starts and then rehanging it when the rain stops. I find this gets old really quickly. However I do have plans for an attic clothes line.
Sharon’s goat has got a vicious streak a mile wide! It’s a killer! He’s got huge, sharp… er… He can leap about. Look at the bones!
Oh, I just love your tongue-in-cheek response!
You’ve single-handedly cracked the code on the U.S. foreclosure crisis. Everyone: listen up. Buy a dryer; hide your clothes. Save the economy and all of civilization!
hear hear! < is that even spelled correctly? I am about to inflict chickens upon my little corner of the woods; my one little act of civil disobedience. The tractor should be complete within the next few weeks.
yipee!
Because “pretty view” should trump “livable planet.” Huh. *shakes head*
Clothesline bans…. has anyone told you guys that you’re really, really, weird?
Here in NZ, although we do have dryers, they’re only for when it’s been raining for a week and you have to get the kids’ school uniforms dry. Or for the terminally lazy.
Sunshine and breeze do a better job.
To anybody in Massachusetts: please contact your state senator and representative, along with Environmental Secretary Bowles, and tell them you support changing Massachusetts General Law to include clotheslines under the existing definition of protected solar energy equipment, as follows:
Chapter 40A: Section 1A. Definitions
Section 1A. As used in this chapter the following words shall have the following meanings:
“Permit granting authority”, the board of appeals or zoning administrator.
“Solar access”, the access of a solar energy system to direct sunlight.
“Solar energy system”, a device or structural design feature, a substantial purpose of which is to provide daylight for interior lighting or provide for the collection, storage and distribution of solar energy for space heating or cooling, electricity generating, DRYING LAUNDRY, or water heating.
“Special permit granting authority”, shall include the board of selectmen, city council, board of appeals, planning board, or zoning administrators as designated by zoning ordinance or by-law for the issuance of special permits.
Such a very simple, TWO WORD change to MGL Chap. 40A, Sec. 1A, changes the definition used in two other chapters of the MGL that currently void bans on solar energy equipment installation and use by municipalities, deeds, and homeowner associations (Chapters 40A, Sec. 3, and 181, Sec. 23C.)
Please do this.
Thanks!
Just when I start to think Americans might be marginally sane…….that NY Times article totally blows that theory. A guy got shot over laundry?! Unbelievable.
US advertising agencies must have terrible trouble selling laundry detergent…….all the ads here in NZ seem to involve women blissfully dancing about smelling their sheets on the washing line outside
Unfortunately, it’s absolutely as crazy here as it seems Sealander.
It’s not quite worth moving to NZ for, but the thought has entered my mind
This type of backwards backyard behavior continues to get….my goat!
I come from a long-line of clothesline worshipers in a culture that’s always gotten it, whether spring, summer, fall, and, certainly, winter.
This important matter to resolve soon needs all the support it can get, and I wonder if I can summon some sweet Québec, Love just about now.
Tucson gets it, and those desert pockets that don’t yet will surely hear the message to proudly hang high and dry.
Other desert and drought cultures are on board, and it’s truly enjoyable to share a common global domestic gesture like clothes hanging with, say, the fine folks down under in Australia.
So, People of Québec La Belle Province, can you please help Sharon create a mighty wave in support of la belle corde à linge?
Who’s out there? Who? Who?
Danielle Charbonneau
Tucson Community Advocate (who proudly hangs her bobettes in the desert breeze)
I’ve been using my “high-capacity” dryer for our 2 loads a week. After reading that article, I think I’m inspired to finally make that clothes line switch.
I’m certainly the only person on the block who hangs out the laundry but then this building is the only one with a backyard (everyone else just has parking spaces – ugh). And I use the backyard because it is larger and gets full sun (the front yard is slowly becoming the perennial foods patch anyway).
There may be some housing associations here in Anchorage that prohibit clotheslines in addition to front yard veggie gardens but I don’t live in one. I do, however, live in a zone that only allows backyard animals as a conditional use. Which means that if we were to get chickens, our neighbors have a say. I already know of at least one property owner (who doesn’t live on the block) who calls the city about the tiniest infraction done by any of the neighbors so I’m thinking that there would be no way to “quietly” have chickens. I suspect that everyone around us would be fine with chickens but all our neighbors are renters.
As for clotheslines being the reason a house did not sell, I think the virtually abandoned house with the overgrown yard on the corner has more to do with the lack of interested buyers for the rental property next door than my clothesline or veggie gardens. Actually, the veggie gardens are very attractive and get regular positive comments from the neighbors. Maybe if the neighboring property put in front yard veggie gardens? I wonder if it would sell faster…
Kerri in AK
Like the New Zealanders, I am always boggled by the US reactions against line drying. It’s such a universal practice in Australia that a warm day with a breeze is colloquially known as ‘a good drying day’.
When we put our house on the market two years ago, to move back to the family farm (2nd floor apartment, my parents live on the first floor), the backyard garden and laundry lines were positive selling points.
We even inspired some of the neighbors to put in gardens themselves.
Line drying is a conspiracy against the interests of Con-Edison and GE. Who pays for more advertising in the Times, GE? power-companies? or the miserable bums who produce rope and clothespins?
How can New Zealand surge in support of the US’s efforts to legalize clotheslines across the country?
You help us and we’ll gladly return the supportive e-favor with one of your pertinent issues?
What say, Global Neighbors?
Is Sharon’s reader Viv in NZ inspired to lead the way in any way?
Okay with you, Leader of the Pack, Sharon?
Nice to hang out with y’all, today!!
Thank you to Stephen B. for his instructions on how to meld the legal with the practical. It’s what we need to influence change, and fast.
Back to you, Sharon!!
Danielle
Tucson, AZ
Well, I must admit that when the snow is 5 ft deep under my outdoor clothes lines, I hang them in the rock basement and fluff the undies and towels in the dryer.
I am trying to convince the husband that more clotheslines would be a good thing since I only do laundry once a week and I dont have enough space to leave them out if it’s a humid day.
If rain comes while my clothes are on the line I call it a rainwater rinse and point out how good they smell…..
My sister lives in a condo and cant have clotheslines, a garden or anything like a bird feeder. She sneaks a pot of tomatoe plants and then lives in fear that she will be found out. It’s too weird.
Deb
That is the best title for an article, ever!
Kx
Oh-my-giddy-auntie. I’m flabbergasted. I’m about to hang two loads of washing on the line – it’s a beautiful sunny day here in my part of Australia – and for me that’s normal, not something I have to fight for.
for goodness sake! I thought it was stupid that my town makes me pump my septic every 2 years, and I have to pay to have a permit pulled to do so. $35 for premission to pump out and then $200 to the pumping company….
I wonder what they would charge for hanging laundry on my property – which I pay taxes on anyway!
But Sharon – good catch on the whole housing forclosure mess – its all because some greenies out there want to save electricity…..
Ok 0 I nearly wet myself laughing….
Nostalgia?!? Clotheslines… *sputter* and gardens… equal *nostalgia*….WHAT now??? I am so confused…. I thought it was a return to old fashioned values, like thrift. And hard work. And sun warmed, fresh air breeze dried sheets were just a bonus.
Still trying to convince myself that I can indeed dry things outside in the winter. Am more likely to thrash about inside and find some way of hanging lines in the laundry room or the basement. Jury is still out. But the new clothesline this year has been *awesome*, and has gotten nothing but positive reactions from our neighbors.
Nostalgia… Crimeny! I’ll give them nostalgia….
I`m with the Aussies and Kiwis – here in Japan, driers are rare, and we all seem to manage somehow even with pokey apartments. With a family of 5 in a 2 bedroom apartment, we often have laundry hanging up inside when the weather is bad, but its no big deal. The only time I would like a drier is in the rainy season, but even so we manage without one.
In Ontario last year, the premier had a big press conference with laundry hanging everywhere in the government buildings. He overturned any legal haggling over hanging laundry. So now we are free to let our undies fly, doesn’t matter where you live in the province.
I’m flying mine proud!
Amanda
P.S. I must point out, least all US readers immediately book one way tickets to our small but pert country, that we do shoot people here too. Just not because of laundry drying methods. People here only get murdered for sensible reasons, like drugs, or gang warfare
@Hanging Out
“How can New Zealand surge in support of the US’s efforts to legalize clotheslines across the country?”
You can count on us (well, me) to help – but I fear you may be beyond mere mortal assistance: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8305987.stm
“You help us and we’ll gladly return the supportive e-favor with one of your pertinent issues?”
There are a few of those. For example, we may need your experience in getting rid of right-wing governments who don’t have a clue on how to deal with climate change (or any other environmental issues)!
Flapping undies are exactly why the Hills Hoist (google it) was invented – you hang your undies on the inside, then your pants and shirts, then sheets and towels on the outside. The sun warms them and the breezes spin the line so it all dries evenly. Poetry in motion!
Hmm, get a bill passed to outlaw the production of reality TV programmes, and we will picket the US embassy and festoon it with flapping underpants. Might send you some aid packages of clothepegs too, with instructions
[...] Hat tip to Sharon at Casaubon’s Book. [...]
@ Rainman, I recall an Australian minister that could compete favorably with some of our legislators and Administration officials. The video was something about “The front fell off”. I think the most fun was watching the reporter doing the interview, once he realized the minister was reporting the official position, without understanding anything about ships and the environment. There were several copies on YouTube.com the last I looked.
I wonder – is the consensus about the massive drought in Australia considered to be a natural cycle, the result of climate change in general, or a direct consequence of deforestation in South America, Asia, and Africa?
@ Laurie in MN,
One thing to consider about drying clothes inside – they put moisture in the air. But inside-dried clothes don’t get the antiseptic bouquet of an outdoor breeze. Hint: I believe the more successful approach is to shovel the snow out from under the clothes lines. Maybe even a path from the house to the line.
Let us know what you figure out, to keep fingers warm, wet clothes securely pinned, and avoid freezing fingers to the cold wires.
LOL… I can’t believe that people around here are like that… wait… yes, I can. At least the folks in my neighborhood don’t “care.” I have a line and several racks and am proud (overly so, maybe) to say that I haven’t used a dryer in six and a half months – despite my DH’s objections! Although, I seem to be coming down with flu, and DH will be doing the laundry, so I think the dryer will get some use… since it wouldn’t be wise for the sickie to handle all the clean clothes… :-\
–Erika
Yes, in Oz all houses are automatically fitted with clothes lines. Its more likely not to sell if it has an inadequate clothes line. We live in a humid coastal area and we just hung clothes lines under the verandah and there they stay 15 years later.
In wet weather, they still work because they are under cover but get the breeze. Then if it is truly wet season and they won’t dry completely I bring them inside, hang them on clothes hangers and pop them onto a rack I had fitted in an airy hallway. Ultimate airing room.
I had a dryer when the kids were little and don’t have one any more. Not because I can’t afford it just because its a waste.
It’s true! The continuing tradition in Australia is hanging your washing outside on the clothesline.
It’s the done thing.
People who live in flats and the like hang their washing on clothes horses (tall teired contraptions – extremely useful in wet weather) on their balconies, or inside.
Clothes dryers are a last resort, used after days and days of wet weather.
Snowy, long, cold wintery weather is no excuse because homes are heated one way or another. All you need is a “clothes horse” and the washing gets dry.
Usually overnight – fold clothes away during the day, sometime, and put the “horse” away.
I do leave the “horse” up in the kitchen (warmest room), in winter. We are a family of seven and there is always laundry to dry…
People with central heating have no excuse. A “horse” positioned over-or-under any of those vents = dry clothes.
Oh, but it will be “unsightly”, all that washing hanging around. Like a “chinese laundry” it’s said.
Get.Over.It.
Viv here doesn’t have a dryer but has been known to borrow one about twice a year when it rains for more than a week.
I do find Americans fascinatingly weird. The things they get their knickers in a twist about……..!!
Any leading is probably better done by someone else (unless it is a knitting/craft class) but any help wanted will be forthcoming especially in exchange for right wing removal work
There’s a certain city council we would be glad to see the back of…..along with their daft ideas.
viv in nz
ps snow was never much of an issue as long as the sun was out where I grew up. Dunedin, where I now live, doesn’t have much snow so not a problem anyhow.
I know this is ‘serious ‘ but, Oh I love all these comments – my friends and I were just discussing the art of laundry the other day. How to shake so the big creases come out, How to hang things so they don’t get the funny marks. Where is the politically correct place to put the peg on your knickers. How to peg the tshirt right in the middle at the front when you’re feeling a little miffed with your other half ! The different smells from outside drying, inside drying and dryer drying. How to ‘feel’ when things are just the right dryness. The pride that comes with a full clothes line. The depression that comes soon after when you remember, “heck, now I’ll have to get the iron out!”
Can we have the deep discussion about how exactly we clean our toilets next – are you allowed to do that in America?
I have never owned a drier. I dry my clothes mostly inside, and my sheets and blankets mostly outside. I remember hanging my clothes outside to dry in January in Buffalo, New York! They would freeze solid, and then slowly the ice would evaporate into vapor. It would take a few days.
I did learn one lesson, though. In Buffalo, I was washing everything by hand in the bathtub before hanging them outside. It resulted in icicles hanging from the clothes and blankets. DON’T try kicking the icicles off!! At least not with old fabric. I kicked a hole right through an old blanket!
In Buffalo, it was OK to hang clothes in the backyard, but NOT on your front porch. My Italian neighbors got quite angry with us, until we figured out what the problem was and switched to the back. Peace was restored!
Who knew my blog would be a tool for international treaties and alliances
.
Sharon
A lot of houses in England, and, I’m sure, elsewhere, had drying yards — where, you or the maid of all work, or the cook-general, or the housemaid, or the laundress, or the char woman or who ever was charged with the task, hung out the wash. Maybe if we bring back technical terms, it will fly. After all, important people who a generation ago would have never typed, now keyboard with exective skill.
A freind of mind told in that her Lansing MI neighborhood in the (other) Depression, if you didn’t hang out your under clothing, your nieghbors believe you could no longer afford any.
MEA
We will never live in a neighborhood with a Homeowner’s Association because we don’t want to deal with this kind of nonsense. It truly is ridiculous.
I am more disturbed the the stench of my neighborhood garbage cans than their laundry. Some must be throwing away tons of meat-laced garbage because the cans smell like dead rotting animals each week on pick-up day!
so what exactly is the rainy day protocol? i assume you don’t hang at all if it’s actually raining at the time, but it sounds like folks leave laundry out through rain, and overnight, all the time! I don’t have an indoor option right now, I have enough outdoor line for one large load only, and even with my efforts to reduce laundry production (things like sheets and towels once a month, etc.), I find our family of five still produces a load a day in the regular scheme of things. Which is way too much and we’re definitely working on it…
Here’s my raining day (and lazy day) protocol. I put what I can on hangers, and them them over the shower curtain rail.
I put big things, such as sheets and towels, hung over open doors (we have exactly 6 interior doors — though why you need to know that I don’t know). Pillowcases and smaller towels go over the back of chairs. I have 2 drying racks — on goes in the bath to keep it out the way, the other stays in the basement. I also have down there on of those racks that are supposed to go over the back of a closit door and hold shoes that I use for knickers, bras, socks and odiments. (I usually hang what I can down there anyway.) THere is also a rod in the basement I can put hangers on, though I think the clothing dries quicker upstairs.
MEA
I have a set up very similar to MEA for indoor drying (rainy or dark), 2 drying racks, which truthfully often live in the dining room and the shower rods in both bathrooms. I also hang some things from the molding over the doorways, especially into the laundry area (closet off the kitchen) or bedroom closets.
In the winter I often do laundry in the evening and hang it on the racks to dry in front of the heating vents overnight. Dry clothes and some much needed humidity!
Outside I have no true “line” at all, but hang the laundry on the racks and on the deck railings, plus on hangers draped off the umbrella to the patio table. My deck is the sunniest spot in my yard (barring the strip right next to the street).
Yes.
I used to have a proper Hills Hoist rotary clothesline but my husband felled a tree on it a couple of years ago. I’m lucky that I have a long, wide verandah on the north (sunny) side of the house so I have two lines stung under that. The lines hold one large load of laundry between them and it doesn’t matter if it rains as it’s under cover. For underpants I have a little round hanger thingy with clips around the outside edge that I hang off a hook under the roof (like a hanging planter pot) to save space on the lines.
In Tasmania winters are either cold and frosty or wet. Some mornings it feels like my fingers are getting frostbite but I haven’t lost a digit yet! If the weather is still and the laundry unlikely to dry after a couple of days I bring it in anyway and use a clothes horse (or airer) in front of the heat pump in the dining room. That dries nicely using the moving heated air while heating the house. If I run out of room on the airer/s I also use the dining chairs and some shirt hangers to hold the overflow.
Our dining room indeed resembles a Chinese Laundry most of the winter, especially this year when we broke our drought with record rains in several consecutive months. However, I prefer this look to using a dryer if at all possible. I have access to one at Mum’s or a local laundrette but I resist except in the most dire of circumstances, maybe once every 5 years.
I’d be glad to help our northern colleagues out in a protest over the right to hang washing out in the fresh air and sunshine anytime ;0)
We hang our undies up indoors on a drying rack; L is sensitive about these things. Everything else goes outside most of the year. The laundry lines get taken down in the winter. Um, I’m not sure why, but maybe because we get quite a bit of snow. So then I hang things up indoors. Our bed has a metal canopy frame, which is perfect to hang clothing on hangers from. I do end up using the dryer for sheets and sometimes towels as we don’t have enough space in the apartment. It may not be house beautiful, but on the other hand the extra humidity during our dry winters is great for my asthma and saves having to use a humidifier.
Stephen B, I live in MA and wrote my rep, senator, and Sec. Bowles !
I know this comment is late, but I’ll leave it just in case anyone does see it and finds it as telling as I do.
The statement from Mr. Jacques:
“Those rules are why when I look out my window I now see birds, trees and flowers, …”
Reminded me of:
They’re coming to take me away, HA HA
They’re coming to take me away, HO HO HEE HEE HA HA
To the happy home
With trees and flowers and chirping birds …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27OeLbdnwnI